Detaching roll motion



nm'AcHmG nom Morrow Filed sept. 5, 1929 Patented Aug. 11, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT oI-Ficiaifl i' SIGURD ii. H ELLAND, or WniTiNsviLLn, MASSACHUSETTS, A ssicfivoitV To wH1TiN MACHINE Woe-KS, or WniTiNsvrLnii, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION or lMAS- SACHUSETTS i DETACI-IING ROLL MOTION Application, sled september 5, i929. Serial No. 390,476.

The object of the invention is a variable motion derived from a constant rotational drive, without the' use of cams, mutilated gears `or reciprocating links, primarily- 5 suited to the requirements of the detaching rolls of cotton combers, which rolls are required vto rotate step-by-step in one direction.and,alternately with such movements, through av smaller angle in the reverse' direction,'so as to detach a tuft from .the lapand feed it back a short distance to present "the tail of the tuft to the comb and in overlapping relation to the leading edge of the lap. This .general motion and the several i operations referred to being well known and is necessary. v Y

They invention comprises a gear set, including elliptical or eccentric gears comcommon to the art, no furtherfdescription "20. pounded with sun and planet pinions, and

capable" of organization to produce any one of a Variety of motionsV bythe selection of gears or pinions of'relative size appropriate to the requirementsv of the particular machine, thev gear set being of compact form,V

and arranged so as to vbe readily applied to existing machines without requiring `structural changes of any moment, and being vcapable of operation at high speed without 30. shock or undue vibration, as will presently Gear 5 is secured to a sleeve 6 whichis journalled to rotate freely on aninner sleeve 7 in turn supported by the usual comb cylinder shaft 8 or a shaft rotating equally therewith. The invention permits the use of the comb cylinder shaft as the driver of the system which is an advantage in the i direction of simplicity and low manufacturing cost. The new Vgear vset constitutes the gearing'is arranged to permit lrotation of .the planet gearon its own axisxand toretransmission between they driver and the driven member, and `in preferred form comprises an epicyclic unit of which the eccentric gears are apart. As shown, sun andl planet gears A and B, are of eccentric form, and for simplicity and economy are preferably of equal size. l Gear Afa-.is `mounted on thecomb cylinder shaft and gear B on a planet shaft l1 which, as usual in epicyclic volve about what is usually termed the xed aXis i. e. the aXisof shaft 8. In thevform shown vthe planet shaft is supported in the side walls of a casing 12 the hu lofwhich i r,is mounted onithe comb. `cylinder shaft.

Sleeve 7 is integral with hubl 13..A The planet shaft may of course be carriedfby a spider arm, or otherwise, but'the casing'is preferred in that it provides an enclosure for the variousgears and may contain an oil bath for them. f In accordance with this design eccentric gear B is formed integrally witha circular planet pinion C in turn meshing. Iwith af' cicular sun pinion D which is mounted to rotate on and relatively to sleeve 7 In .common `withepicyclic gearing generally, it is limmaterial which of -the sun 'gears is fixed and -whether the 'casing orfso .011@ 0f Such gears `is driven,'but as Vhere shown, `thecasing is driven and for this purpose its hub 13 iskeyedto'the comb c ylinderlshaft. The casing sidewallsv are lapped over the peripheries of platesl and4 17 which are secured respectively to sleeve 6 and gear A to form the enclosure, although as will be understood these. parts may be variously constructed to'permit the Y"casing torotateon its aXis and with respect to the sun gears. Plate 17 is secured'to a part of thecomber "stand, as-by stud' 18, so that gear A is the stationary member of the system and accordingly gear D, which becomes a moving member, is secured to sleeve'y 595 6 as the drivervfor gear train 5, 4, 3,32.'

Before describing the operation of the drive as thus applied to a'rcottonvcomber reference will be made to Figs.'2, Sand-4L wherein the severalparts areshown dia-100 vwith reference to the particular motion 10 desired; A and TB 'are the eccentric gears; r .is the acting radius of the planet eccentric gear; R is the acting radius ot the fixed or sun eccentric gear, both r and R varying according to the relative positions of A-and B; and S the speed oi rotation of the cas- Y e. of the planet shaft as a whole .A and D, above The direction Ving, about the 1airis of gears referredrto as the fixed axis.

:of rotation fof the Vcasing `and system is indilcatedfbysarrovv :P,'the vplanet gears 'B and 'then always rotating fin the -ldirection indicated iby .their arrows.

\ While vrolling around the iXed eccentric gear A, B will fmake contact with 1t at Va ,point such 'as Xk (Fig. 2) where R is equal to .-r, there being two such points, as

will be funderstood. Under this condition =the drive 'rati-o of .A to 2B is .1 to l which means that4 the speed fof rotation of .gear C (about the vaxis of theplanetshaft) 1s ZS- lthis being anormal incident 'oi planetary construction. .E y

Gear B will presently make contact with Aat :a-fpoint such -as Y :(Fig. 3) where the drive rati'o Rlto ris .a maximum. At this 2S, where .is Y'greater than vwith 'at a :point such. as Z (F where Vits-axis at twice 'the speed o Gear will alsopresently make `"cont-act the drive 'ratio R to'f/1 "is a mininium;Y At "this "insta-nt 'the s eed 'of rotation of gear 1C iis 2S,.where e; .is less than l. l .Since .gears "C 'and AD' are assumed to Lbe of equal size, the -three conditions mentioned will lgive fthe following results: v At points X, ,gear VD will 'be' stationary., C rotating on i the casing and accordingly rolling on D without driving it; at point Y, gear Dwilldo'e driven 1n the direction oi its arrow ("Fig. '3) due to the fact that C is then rotating faster than rollingspeed ;1at .point `Z,gear D will be 'driven `in the reverse-direction, as indicated by the arrow 4in .F ig. 4, due to the fact that C .is- `then, 'rotating Vslower than rolling speed.

AFor convenience the Vvarious phases vofmovemfent are -reterred to as vpoints on the A :gear Afbut Vit willhewederstood `that they Irepresent'foniy the maxiinunispeed `in each 5 direction and that they fare approachedand .left respectively at yvarying speed.

lAs stated, the foregoing is based on the assumption that C and D are of equal size.

Taking now the position shown in Fig. 2, which shows the relation of the dwell or stopping points to the drive points, it will be vapparent that `the location of these vdwell `points jis as indicated, i. e. where R equals 1", only because C and D are oi' equal size. `In generahgearl D will be stationary for any `sizes of gears C and ID, whenever the ratio of gear teeth D to vC equals the `drive ratio R to r, which is the relationship required or rolling of the planet gears as distinguished from driving. Similarly gear D will be rotated in a counter-clockwise direction whenever (in terms :ofzgear teeth ratio) AR to r isgreatertha'nD to C,anda clockwise direction when :R to 'r is .less than D to C. lt V.follows theretore that -by `using "gears of diierentsizes ("C and D) the stopmovement and subtracting `from the backward movement, or vice versa. By way of illustration, as the "number of. teeth on eC (relative to D) is increased, so the dwell (X) automatically move towardthe point Z (FigcQ), i. e. to satisfy the requirementfof :the-dwell points that the ratio .Rz r equal lthe ratio D: C. In the flimit, which occurs when theradius :of C equals them'axii:mum lofin (and the radius of @D fequals the `minimum of R), zthe .dwell points-coincide instant the speed of rotation, of gear C is n?. Wlth Point Z or m other Words R to 7' can v:never vbe `.less thany D ato C and therefore clockwise `rotation off .D;(.-F:ig. is .eliminetted. Similarly, ilfzthe number-of teeth on C is decreased relative to D, in the? limit, the dwell points-coincide with point Y and the counter-clockwise trotationof D (Fig. 3) gis rdetaching roll, as Laboveexplained, :and (reverting now to Fig. 1)' it is obtained by the use "of .gears C and D diiering insize :an

:amount appropriate tothe requirements of `fthe particular machine. In the -presentcase the ratio of the number 'of teethf'onthese two gears is 4l to 40, althoughfwhether gear vr'C or gear D is the larger of the two 'is depend ento'nly upon 'the natureo the intermediate gearing2, 3, 4 and-5,-that is to say, whether such gearing is arrangedto-'drive the detaching roll inthe same direction fasthe sleeve 6 Aor in the opposite direction. v V

'The operation of he `gear 'set as applied to "a comber will now 'befapparent -Upon rotation of the comb cylinder shaft casing 12 is rotated, carrying with it the planet shaft andits planet gears B and C. Eccentric gear B is operated by eccentric. gear A alternately faster and slower than i rolling speed whereby gear D Vis rotated alternately forwards and backwards. On account of the difference in size of gears C and D these forward and backward movements are unequal, as above explained, with the result that the detaching roll, through gears 5, 4, 3 and 2, is actuated to detach successive tufts and feed each one backwards a short distance to provide the desired overlap, as above described.

The term eccentric as used herein contemplates, any gear form bywhich the speed of rotation of the planet gear (about its own axis) is caused to vary with respect to the speed of rotation of the planet shaft about the fixed axis, and without regard to whether such gears are symmetrical with respect to their axes of rotation.

I claim: f

l. In a comber a detaching motion comprising an epicyclic gear system including two gear couples, each comprising a pair of intermeshing gears and one of the couples constituted of meshing eccentric gears correlated to the other gears to convert continuous unidirectional rotation into intermittent forward and backward rotation.

2. In a combing machine, the combination with the comb cylinder shaft and the detaching roll of an epicyclic gear system, comprising eccentric sun and planet gears, a sun pinion mounted coaxially with the eccentric sun gear, and a planet pinion meshing with said sun pinion and connected to rotate with the eccentric planet gear, said shaft and roll being connected respectively to drive and be driven by the gear set.

3. In a combing machine, the combination with the comb cylinder shaft and the detaching roll of an epicyclic gear system arranged to drive the latter from the former and comprising a sun gear and a planet gear, said gears being of equal size, and both of eccentric form, a sun pinion mounted coaxially with the sun gear and a planet pinion meshing with the sun pinion and connected to rotate with the planet gear, said pinions being of unequal size.

4. In a combing machine, the combination with the comb cylinder shaft and the detaching roll of an epicyclic gear system comprising a casing driven by said shaft, a sun gear of eccentric form mounted on the axis of the comb cylinder shaft, means for holding said with the planet pinion and connected to drive the detaching roll.

5. In a comber having a drive shaft rotating at constant speed and a detaching roll,

planet pinion and the eccentric planet gear.`

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification. l

i SIGURD H. HELLAND.

gear stationary, a planet gear of eccentric form meshing with said gear and journalled inthe casing for bodily rotation about said axis, a planet pinion connected to rotate with said planet gear, and a sun pinion meshing 

